


Paradise Found

by nesrynfaliq



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Azriel is a pathetic Illyrian baby too sometimes, F/M, Fluff, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 02:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7917049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nesrynfaliq/pseuds/nesrynfaliq
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finally managing to escape her duties in the Court of Nightmares, Mor tracks her family down to a quiet lakeside on the edge of Velaris and joins Az where he’s sunbathing on the water’s edge. </p>
<p>Continuing to scan the scene she finally finds the person she had been looking for above all the others. Azriel has his back to her, perching on the end of the wooden pier that juts out into the water and looking at ease. His great, black wings are flared wide to their fullest extent and he’s…Sunbathing she realises with a pulse of delight. In all the centuries she’s known him she’s never seen him as at peace as he’s been recently, with her. It makes her heart lighten and skip several beats all at once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradise Found

Kicking off her shoes Mor stands walks down to the lake banks in her bare feet, smiling at the feel of the lush grass between her toes. As she walks she surveys the scene spread out before her, mouth tugging into a grin. It’s the height of summer in the Night Court and Rhys decided some much needed cooling off was needed. They’d all been given the day off and somehow they’d all ended up here. A bright, sunlit loch only a ten minute flight from Velaris and today they were fortunate enough to have it all to themselves.

Elain and Lucien are nestled together on a picnic blanket a little ways away. Lucien raises a hand, his back to her, and waves at her in lazy greeting. Elain smiles and nods to her before she returns her attention to her mate. He’s lying sprawled out on the thick grass with his head in her lap, allowing her to braid his long crimson hair. While she does so he prattles away to her, hands sketching shapes in the air and she giggles almost continually.

A loud shriek echoing over the water distracts her from the couple on the water’s edge and she looks up in time to see Nesta glowering darkly at Cassian. The two of them are floating a ways away by now in a quaint little boat. From the way that it rocks violently on the incredibly still water and from the way Nesta continues ranting at Cassian Mor manages to surmise that he must have done something that nearly caused them to capsize.

Chuckling, Mor fondly considers those around her. Her family. A little larger than it once was but still hers. She doesn’t bother looking for Feyre and Rhys; she had spotted them sneaking off towards a collection of natural stone caves not far from the lake. Mor had only winked at Rhys and continued on her way as though she hadn’t noticed them. They deserved a little peace and fun together after everything they’d been through. They all did.

Continuing to scan the scene she finally finds the person she had been looking for above all the others. Azriel has his back to her, perching on the end of the wooden pier that juts out into the water and looking at ease. His great, black wings are flared wide to their fullest extent and he’s... _Sunbathing_ she realises with a pulse of delight. In all the centuries she’s known him she’s never seen him as at peace as he’s been recently, with her. It makes her heart lighten and skip several beats all at once.

Walking over to him she demands, “Comfy?” from behind him. Anyone else would have jumped at the sudden interruption of their quiet alone time but Azriel doesn’t even open his eyes.

When they had been younger, that first time in the Illyrian war camp, she had spent days and days attempting to sneak up on him and catch him off his guard. She had never succeeded. It was only when Cassian caught her attempting it for the hundredth time and after he’d finished laughing himself stupid at her that he’d explained it was near impossible to surprise a shadowsinger – especially one like Az.

A soft smile touches his lips as he opens his eyes to look up at her. The sun reflecting in his eyes makes the greens in them burn bright as pine. Idly stroking her fingers through his hair Mor steps carefully around his wings and settles herself contentedly in his lap, straddling him. Her legs dangle over the edge of the pier, her toes skimming the surface of the water but she’s not worried about falling in.

Azriel’s scarred hands slide at once around her waist the moment she settled in place on his lap and he holds her steady and safe against him. She reaches up and drapes her arms lazily around his neck letting a broad grin spread across her lips. Then she leans forwards, fingers sliding through his dark hair again and kisses him. It’s a slow kiss, lazy and open, one that reflects the comfortable summer day around them. It’s not a kiss for intensity or raw passion, just connecting and sharing in this moment.

Azriel hums, the noise vibrating through her from his broad chest. Mor allows herself a moment to admire the sight of her partner’s topless body. As ever her fingers follow the paths of the tattoos that snake over his chest and shoulders and arms. His shadows occasionally brush against her skin, soft whispers of darkness, light and barely visible in the bright, relaxed day. But still there, always there, always a part of him.

She pillows her head against his shoulder, nestling in close to him. “I missed you,” she murmurs, grazing her nose lightly against his neck.

She’s spent the last few days trapped in the bowels of the Court of Nightmares. Not the longest she’s ever spent there; nor by far the most harrowing trip but...It had been enough to make her crave both the feel of the hot summer sun gilding her skin and the warmth of Azriel’s arms around her. Her bed had felt too empty and too cold, her body to bare and exposed without his wings wrapping around her, she shudders.

One of Az’s hands lifts from its steady brace around her hip and his fingers drag up and down along her spine. The rhythmic motion is gentling and soothing and she feels the residual bits of tension she hadn’t known she was holding in her body releases and she melts happily against him.

Pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head Azriel rumbles, “I missed you too.”

Mor peppers soft, rapid kisses against his neck. Then, without raising her face from his shoulder in order to conceal her smile she reaches behind him and lets her fingers lightly stroke his wings. His whole body goes completely rigid against hers. She smirks and repeats the gesture, using her nail this time and dragging the motion out longer, following nearly the entire outer arc of his left wing.

He growls low in his chest in response and she feels heat start to swell between them. “That’s not fair,” he snarls gently in her ear, his hot breath stirring the loose strands of her golden hair.

“No?” She teases, raising her head at last to look into his eyes, gleaming with the faint, smoky haze of lust. Her hand reaches out again to stroke him once more but his hand shoots out and catches her wrist, his eyes gleaming in warning.

“We’re in public,” he reminds her, his deep voice maddeningly cool and composed despite the fact she knows she’s winding him up.

She snorts in response to this complaint. “That didn’t stop you at that dinner at the Summer Court last month,” she reminds him tartly.

They had been in a crowded ballroom packed with people and while they had been dancing quietly in throngs he had allowed both shadows and hands to slip beneath her dress and stroke her thighs. In the end she had been forced to pull him outside, pin him against the wall and drag her dress up around her hips to encourage him to finish what he’d started.

Azriel smirks at the memory and very gently bites at her neck making her shiver. “You knew exactly what that dress would do to me,” he murmurs softly.

A wicked grin is dragged across her lips at that. The dress had been exquisite, the silk so fine it almost seemed liquid and clung to her body like a second skin. A deep, rich blue, it matched his siphons and swayed with every deliberate swing of her hips. When she’d walked into that ballroom and to him every eye had been upon her but she had only seen him. And the hunger that gleamed in his hazel eyes a moment before he’d swept her into his arms.

“I suppose I did,” she admits, still grinning at him. She had expected it to be a tease for him for the duration of the ball, something he would be allowed to peel off of her in the privacy of their bedchamber later that night. Which he had done, slowly, lovingly. But she hadn’t expected to have to interrupt her dancing in order to tend to the desire that had flared within both of them.

With another feral little smirk she lightly caresses his wings again, the sensitive membrane this time and delights in the way he shudders. “I know what this does to you too,” she purrs in his ear, softly rocking her hips against him.

“ _Morrigan_ ,” he groans hopelessly, burying his face against her neck, his nails biting tightly into her hips.

Snickering, she desists, deciding that she wants to be in a place she can moan for him as loudly as she wants when they celebrate their reunion.

Nuzzling into his broad chest again she gives him a moment to compose himself before she looks up at him again. “How is everything?” she asks him, peering deep into his eyes for any hint of darkness in them.

Azriel however raises his head and glances about the lake spread around them before he shrugs and says, “Well, Cassian and Nesta haven’t killed each other yet so...”

She nudges him sharply with an elbow, unable to stop herself sighing at him. “I meant _you_ ,” she says pointedly.

He blinks at her in surprise, as though this hadn’t even crossed his mind. And she supposes it must not have. “I’m all right.”

She groans and rolls her eyes “Of course you are,” she grumbles. All these centuries, a few decades of them together as a proper couple and drawing any truth from him about himself is still harder than getting Cassian to behave himself.

With a faint smile he prods at her side, tickling her. She gives him a look that stops him starting that game before she fights fire with fire. Both of them know Az is far more ticklish than she is and that’s a game he’d lose every time.

He settles for gently kissing her temple instead and saying, “And you?”

She squirms uncomfortably in his lap before she huffs irritably, I’m hot.”

“I’d noticed.” He deadpans but the glitter in his eyes makes her smile and lean up to kiss him.

Then she returns to grumbling. “It always gets too warm this time of year,” she complains irritably.

Sometimes she wishes they lived in one of the cooler seasonal courts, where the weather remained temperate and comfortable all year round. The Night Court endures frigid winters and blistering summers. While their Velaris townhouse is always kept relatively neutral regardless of the weather the lands are not held by the same spell.

Without a word Azriel leans over the edge of the pier and scoops up a handful of water in his cupped hand. He pours it gently down the back of her neck, letting it run beneath her loose clothes down the length of her spine. She shudders in pleasure at the feel of it and moans in relief. He repeats the gesture, a soft smile touching his lips. But the action gives her an idea.

Wriggling out of his lap, ignoring his faint whine of protest at her sudden absence she steps carefully onto the pier behind him and begins to peel off her clothes, already sticking to her. “Mor-“ Az protests warningly, flicking his eyes towards the bank where Elain and Lucien are still sitting chattering together.

“They won’t notice,” she insists dismissively, stripping down to her underwear and waving a negligent hand at Az’s concern. She half expects him to stand and shield her with his wings from any potential gawking onlookers but he manages to restrain himself.

 A moment later she’s slipped into the lake with a groan of happiness as the pleasantly cool water caresses her sweaty skin. She swims around to float between where his legs dangle over the edge of the pier. She gazes up at him and slips her hand into his and gives it a very gentle tug, “Coming?” she asks, her eyes dancing merrily.

“It’s cold,” he huffs flatly, as though that’s answer enough.

She swipes her hand through the water at him, splashing him, “Baby,” she tosses out at him.

He shifts on the pier, rustling his wings and looking down at her with what she might have sworn was mischief in his hazel eyes.  “You know I hate getting my wings wet,” he says, voice completely flat and serious.

With a smile she bobs a few feet away from him. “I’ll make it very worth your while,” she promises him, raising her eyebrows suggestively at him and motioning for him to join her.

That soft half-smile that she’s come to love so much on his face flickers there again and he rumbles, “I might stay here and enjoy the view.”

 He nods towards her, her flimsy undergarments clinging to her body, clearly visible in the crystal water of the lake. With an impatient scowl she kicks up her legs, sending a wave of water cascading over him – far more than she’d intended. She lets out a little squeak, caught somewhere between apology and hilarity. The sight of him sputtering and shaking out his wings forces her to clamp both hands over her mouth to stop her laughing.

On the pier Azriel stands, his hazel eyes blazing with the promise of revenge. He starts slowly removing his remaining clothes his eyes fixed on her. Mor finds a faint shriek bursting from her lips swallowed by her laughter as she frantically tries to flail as far away from the pier as she can get before Azriel joins her. He’s calmly and patiently unlacing his trousers, as though he has all the time in the world.

And it’s as though he has. Mor puts a decent amount of distance between them, in spite of her near hysterical giggles, but the moment Az is done he simply spreads his wings. With one powerful stroke they propel him into the air and he then drops like a stone towards the lake, plunging into it right in front of her, negating all of her efforts in a single leap and drenching her at the same time.

He catches her with ease and tugs her against him, glowering in good natured reproach at her. She’s still laughing so hard she can barely breathe but she somehow finds a way to scold him all the same. “That’s cheating!” She manages to rasp out indignantly to him between shuddering breaths.

She tries to be stern with him but the twinkle in her eyes makes her smile. She thinks that’s unfair as well but he doesn’t give her the chance to tell him so. He’s smiling as broadly as she is when he leans down and kisses her, smothering all of her indignation with his tongue. And damn him but she melts right into his arms when he does that.

 The kiss is long and deep and slow and he pulls her body flush against his as it progresses. One of his rough, scarred hands settles at the small of her back, tilting her against him. His other hand slides through her wet, golden hair, tugging gently to add a little tension to the kiss. Mor lets herself groan into the kiss. Some of the tense knots in her body that she hadn’t noticed until now loosen.

She had missed him. Cauldron she had missed him so badly. Missed kissing him, missed touching him, missed kissing him, missed _fucking_ him while she was thinking about it. But most of all she had missed this. The simple pleasure of just being held by him, safe in his arms. She rests her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes and breathing in the scent of him. It’s hard to imagine a time without him. He’s always been there, she knows, always steadily, dependably there throughout the centuries. But being without _this_ , this relationship that they now have, the feelings that they finally admitted for each other...She doesn’t know how she managed it. How she ever existed as fully outside of his embrace.

Mor decides after due consideration and a lot of kisses to forgive him for his cheating. Because while he had unfairly caught her in order to punish her for splashing him in the end she reasons that he had also done what she had wanted and joined her in the water. Even though he shivers pointedly several times and grimaces irritably at his sodden wings in very clear reproach. She rolls her eyes at him. Illyrian males and their wings, honestly. Centuries of living with him, Rhys, and Cassian ought to have made her used to their sensitivity but they did get ridiculous.

 Wrapping her legs around his waist beneath the water to anchor herself she nuzzles in against his neck affectionately. Then she reaches over a shoulder and lightly strokes his wing burying her face into one of his tattoos to hide her smirk. His whole body jerks sharply against hers and he growls sharply at her. It occurs to her than that perhaps the cold water heightens the sensations generated by her warm fingers. She smirks at him.

When she goes to repeat the gesture however, Azriel’s patience – or perhaps simply his self control – finally snaps. He snatches at her wrists and pins them gently against his broad chest. Leaning down he nibbles gently at her earlobe, “Later,” he growls in a way that makes her shudder.

Fine. But she’s not letting him off the hook that easily. Taking his hand she bobs back towards their pier then pulls him underneath it. Understanding what she wants in a heartbeat Azriel presses her gently against one of the wooden support pillars and kisses her and kisses her until she feels drunk on the taste of his tongue and the Court of Nightmares is little more than a distant memory.

****

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback as ever will likely fuel more fic!


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